Didn’t Dr. Strangelove and 2001 come out of the UK? Shepperton or Pinewood or some such?
The mind of the director was all American. It’s just that Kubrick *really *did not want to be bothered and so he moved to the UK.
I’d vote for American Splendor. That’s a great auld film. 
Walloon writes:
> Such as . . . which polls?
Well, for instance, the more-or-less standard poll of critics is the Sight and Sound poll taken every ten years. Here’s the 2002 results for critics:
The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (as a single unit) have moved up to 4th.
Here’s the 1992 results for critics:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/history/1992.html
So in 1992, they were 6th and 9th (as separate films).
Here’s the 1982 results for critics:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/history/1982.html
They weren’t even in the ten ten in that poll.
Here’s the 2002 poll for directors:
The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (as a unit) are 2nd.
On the IMDb poll:
The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are 1st and 3rd, while Citizen Kane is 23rd.
On this poll:
Citizen Kane is 1st and The Godfather is 6th. (_The Godfather Part II is 39th.) Note that The Godfather is the newest film in the top ten. This poll is an average of a lot of critical choices. The sources for the poll are given on the website.
Citizen Kane, a 1941 film, wasn’t even in the top ten in the 1962 Sight and Sound poll. It only became the number one film on the critics’ poll in 1972. It didn’t really become a critics’ favorite until the 1960’s, so it can often take several decades for a film to rise in the estimation of critics. That’s what critics are supposed to do - take a long-term view of their art form. I suspect that for a lot of critics, The Godfather is still a relatively recent film. For me, it’s a film that came out when I was in college and not a “classic” film at all.
It appears to me then that The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are still rising in the estimation of critics. That’s why I am predicting that in the next ten years they will pass Citizen Kane to be considered the top film of all time. Please note that this is a prediction. I’m not psychic. I’m merely looking at trends and predicting which ones will continue. If you predict otherwise, fine. You have as much right as me to make a prediction.
Since every time a statement like this is made, somebody feels they have to misinterpret it and insult the poster who made the statement, let me make the following notes: I am making no personal claims about which film is better. I am making no claims about which poll is the best. If you have examples of other polls of critics, filmmakers, or filmviewers, please give them. Please spare me your snide insults about my taste in films or in polls.
My point being that “has either already passed” or “is very close to passing it on most polls” means that in only one poll, the dubious IMDb list, which resembles no critic’s poll, is the “already passed” true.
Film viewers of today are critics of tomorrow. (And, in any case, I didn’t say that I was only talking about polls of critics in my first post.) My prediction takes in account the fact that in the eyes of film viewers, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II have already passed Citizen Kane. Do you know of other polls of critics than the ones that I cited?
Here’s another poll:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI’s_100_Years…100_Movies(10th_Anniversary_Edition)
This is a survey of filmmakers and critics. The Godfather has moved up from 3rd to 2nd in the past ten years.
She may not have been known before, but Ruth Warrick, who played Kane’s first wife, was on All My Children for years and years and years.
Roger Ebert has a great essay on this subject here.
So, uh… How DID anyone know what Kane’s last word was if he died alone, and no one was around to hear it?
We don’t know if he was alone. Someone else may have been in the room before the nurse entered. I suspect that oily caretaker Raymond was hiding in the shadows, waiting for Kane to die.
Ebert predicted in the 1980s that the lack of Ingmar Bergman on the 1982 S&S list was surely just a blip, and he would be back in high style in the 1992 list. He was wrong.
As the OP is wrong about Citizen Kane. Just as in a similar thread about the legacy of Star Wars, it is a piece whose time will pass, just as have most of the others.